Ahmad Zarruq also known as Imam az-Zarruq was a Muslim scholar and Sufi sheikh from Fes, Morocco.
Background
Zarruq was born on 7 June 1442 (22nd Muharram,846 of the Islamic "Hijra" calendar) - according to Sheikh Abd Allah Gannun - in a village in the region of Tiliwan, a mountain area of Morocco. He was a Berber of the tribe of the Barnusi who lived in an area between Fes and Taza, and was orphaned of both his mother and father within the first seven days of his birth.
Career
He was also the first to be given the honorific title "Regulator of the Scholars and Saints" (muhtasib al-‘ulama’ wa al-awliya’). He was a contemporary of Muhammad al-Jazuli. He took the name "Zarruq" (meaning "blue") and he studied the traditional Islamic sciences such as jurisprudence, Arabic, traditions of Prophet Muhammed and wrote extensively on a number of subjects.
He travelled East to Mecca in Tihamah and to Egypt before taking up residence in Misrata, Libya where he died in 899 (1493).
Anecdotes of Zarruq"s childhood, travels and education appear in an untitled fahrasa and Fawa"id minimum Kunnash, the second being edited in its Arabic version. Selected passages appear in translation in: Zarruq the Sufi: a Guide in the Way and a Leader to the Truth by Ali Fahmi Khushaim (Tripoli, Libya:General Company for Publication, 1976)
On Sunday 26 August 2012, it was reported that hard line religious fundamentalists came to the tomb at 3am and dug out the remains of Zarruq.
The group that destroyed the tomb follow a puritanical doctrine that prohibits the construction and veneration of tombs and shrines, which is viewed as shirk meaning attributing partners to God. There whereabouts of the new grave site would not be publicised so to prevent it being venerated as before.